Haiku Windows: open window

Haiku Windows

In the book Haiku: The Art of the Short Poem, editors Yamaguchi and Brooks quote David Lanoue: “A haiku is a window”…

next week’s theme: welcome to A Sense of Place

Starting in July, we will explore a specific location each week through one of our five senses. We will work through each of the senses in one location, (over five weeks), before moving on to a new location. Ideally, participants will select an actual location that they can visit, or a location from memory that they have visited in the past. Failing that, we always have our imaginations.
Next week, the specifics of the new feature ‘A Sense of Place’ will be described in detail, along with the first prompt. Yes – this means we can all enjoy a week off, to sharpen our pencils…

Haiku Windows: open window

This is the final installment of ‘Haiku Windows’. It has been a privilege to compile this blog post each week – reading submissions from poets from around the world who have honoured me by trusting me with their words. I have enjoyed every syllable, and hope you will check back next week for details about the feature to follow…

open window
I shut down
my emotions

Amy Losak

Here we find a powerful contrast between ‘open’ and ‘shut’ – there can be many reasons for a person to try to control their emotions – one might be that lack of privacy when a window is open, where others might see or hear what a person is doing…

each city block
a canyon
of open windows

Carol Raisfeld

Word choice is important in any poem, but especially so in a poem of eight words – these words describe a scene of urban geography in such a way that the reader might also think about the natural world, as well as evoking both a hemmed in feeling, and the relief of that breeze…

open window
air conditioner
two summers

Olivier Schopfer
Switzerland

The contrast in this poem harkens back to a ‘famous’ poem attributed to Shiki (and incorrectly attributed to Buson, according to my limited research):

I go
you stay
two autumns

– the idea is that the season itself will be different if/when these people are separated, or if one opens that window… and the poems that follow show in many ways how a window opened can make the difference…

Children play outside
With no fear – there is starlight
And open windows.

Mariana Vacca
Australia

distant jazz
thru an open window
love in bloom

Marilyn Appl Walker

open window
a puddle of moonlight
slips in

Marilyn Ashbaugh
Edwardsburg, Michigan

through the window
the cicada’s song turns
into cricket’s

Marina Bellini

daily music practice
I too, learn the melody
open window

Marita Gargiulo

propped up
to face the bay windows
curtains flailing

Mark Gilbert

one by one
opening windows
blackbird’s whistle

Marta Chocilowska

open windows
trying to love
the neighbors

Melissa Howell
Sewanee, Tennessee

Scrap yard –
plants growing through open
junked-car windows

michael ceraolo

open window
rain glistens on the Heartleaf
Philodendron

Michael Henry Lee

alarm company –
the burglar enters through
an open window

Michael H. Lester
Los Angeles CA USA

slack tide…
the submission period
an open window

Michele L. Harvey

Vivaldi playing
through the open window
Spring’s chorus

Mike Gallagher
Ireland

open window
I opt for birdsong
over pandora

Mike Stinson

open window –
two curtain hooks
missing

Mohammad Azim Khan
Peshawar Pakistan

an open window has it –
a summer star blinking
until I sleep

Muskaan Ahuja
Chandigarh, India

open window
the wren serenades
his mate and me

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

open window –
jasmine-scented white night
shares my solitude

Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia

open window –
the distant call
of wandering peafowl

Nicole Tilde
Shady Dale, Ga.

open window
breathing in the strawberry
moon

Pat Davis
Pembroke, NH

open window
I’ll hear the slightest sound
of her return

Paul Geiger

open window
another critter
for our household

Peter Jastermsky

sudden storm
the race
to close the windows

Rachel Sutcliffe

open window
summer’s ringtone – swarm
of mosquitoes

Radhamani Sarma

open window
she’s buying herself
one-way ticket

Radostina Dragostinova

spring fever
all the windows
open

Randy Brooks

unseen breeze
ruffles the curtains
open window

Rehn Kovacic

open window –
a passing tram
cuts off the sparrows’ chirps

Réka Nyitrai

insomnia
the open windows
of my mind

Roberta Beary
County Mayo Ireland

a pigeon intruder screams from my flatmate

Robin Smith
Wilmington, DE

wild magnolias bloom
near the old plantation –
open window

robyn brooks
usa

wide open window
whole of the blue ocean
yet to blow in

ron scully

crossing himself
and the open window
police tape

Ronald K. Craig
Batavia, OH USA

windows open
dancing to my
neighbour’s music

Ruth Powell

restless night
an argument of trees
outside my window

Sandi Pray

open window
warm breeze as her hair fans out
on the pillow

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA

window to the yard
a boy with glasses
watches a game of baseball

Serhiy Shpychenko
Kyiv, Ukraine

raven flies
through the open window
seance turns serious

Shandon Land

Friday
the smell of boiled fish
through the open window

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

roof porthole
retired sailor’s hobby
stargazing

Somayajulu Musunuri ‘MUSO’

open window
between my ears
summer breeze

Stephen A. Peters

Tokyo hotel
through the open window
somewhere…ramen

Susan Rogers
Los Angeles, CA, USA

opening window –
the sunlight discovers
secrets in the room

Tomislav Maretic

secrets whispered
secrets shared
open window

Trilla Pando
Houston, Texas

friday night…
I’m opening a window with
the weather forecast

Tsanka Shishkova

open window…
the stray cat enters
with her fleas

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

baked earth
the scent of first rain
through an open window

Vandana Parashar

lace
open window lets in
his gaze

Zuzanna Truchlewska

Katherine Munro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and publishes under the name kjmunro. She is Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada and an Associate Member of the League of Canadian Poets. She recently co-edited an anthology of crime-themed haiku called Body of Evidence: a collection of killer ’ku.

For me I have to thank KJ for inspiring me to write so many new haiku over these 6 months, and as well as appearing in Haiku Windows I have also had a reworked version of one of my HW entries accepted for Modern Haiku, and am looking forward to seeing three others in Time Haiku. I hope we all will continue to revise and improve on our work which has resulted.

Thank you for all the windows! I appreciate being included in these open windows. Amy Losak’s is wow! Congratulations to all the poets who had haiku here this week. Looking forward to the next incarnation.

.
.
re:
.
burnt toast
a child lets them
smoke outside
.
Alan Summers
England
.
.
After seeing it in ‘virtual print’ I’ve read it as different to my explanation(s) to Kathy in the contact message, which intrigued me.
.
.
Open windows are great passageways for smells we like and don’t like, and in-between, revealing secrets.
.
.
Both my mothers smoked. One gave up, one continued, and had Emphysema and had to be on oxygen 24/7, even when we went out to the family Indian restaurant.
.
.
Although my second mother gave up fairly early on, we can detect secret smoking if there’s an open window. As children we would either be unaware of someone doing something in secret, or the reverse, and holding that secret internally.
.
.
A very young child, not practiced in the art of toasting bread (I’m still terrible if the toaster is stuck), might forget and the toast is sending out smoke furiously. Would, could a child, connect the two acts, human smoker, and smoking bread (burnt toast) and let the ‘bread’ go ‘outside’ to continue to smoke? As if it’s a secret. Thankfully my second mother wasn’t secretive, she just gave up cigarettes, but she was a secret drinker at times. We joked about it many decades later, and she did get to live a long life.
.
burnt toast
a child lets them
smoke outside
.
Alan Summers

I like the way this haiku brings out the complex relations between children and adults. In a way the window seems like it could be a symbol for the boundary between the world of adults (smoking) and the world of a child, and in this haiku they seem to cross over.

Thank you! Yes, I think one parent or another, or even both, might pop outside either for a smoke, a drink, or ‘adult’ talk, and dividing the world, certainly in the evening or night hours.
.
thanks Lucy!

Thanks Carol,
I’ve given myself the impossible task of a memorial piece for Blithe Spirit. How can I do just in just a few words? An incredibly awesome and modest human being and woman, and just plain lovely and decent, and more.
.
love, Alan

In the very best way, this has been like going to Haiku Summer Camp, only without strange water and canned creamed corn on the menu every night. I’m looking forward to the July challenges and solutions.

I write science fiction and fantasy haiku (scifaiku, if you wish) and it’s been fun to return to the real world.

Congratulations to all and in particular Amy, Carol, and Olivier. I thoroughly enjoyed reading all the poems this week but six stood out for me. I look forward to the next challenge, Kathy. It’s been a pleasure to be part of Haiku Windows.

This has been a great place to be, not only for motivation to get down to composing haiku, but also to read the treasure chest of poems presented by other people from other parts the world. You’ve done a marvellous job Kathy, and thanks for adding some of my efforts into the mix, much appreciated.
I look forward to the next session you have mentioned above.

A most enjoyable journey Kathy. It has been a lot of fun peering through these different windows and fabulous catching glimpses of the views of others – a really stimulating prompt. Thank you so much for your time and energy.

Dear Kathy,
Thank you for this fun, weekly challenge. I looked forward to it every week and am pleased that you posted some of my haiku in these beautiful collections.
I applaud your hard work and dedication.
Best wishes,
Dianne Moritz

Who would have thought one could find so many variations on the windows theme, nor the fun and enjoyment of learning so much in both the reading of other poets’ work as well as the research occasionally required for ones own? This was a rewarding experience and a delight to read each week, and thank you, Kathy for creating the opportunity, and for again including one of mine. I look forward to what comes next, but meanwhile have a well deserved rest.

Thank you so so much for including me here. To contribute every week in this
wonderful platform is a rewarding experience with full prospects. Going through every
poet is a pleasure indeed.
with regards
S.Radhamani

Dear Kathy,
Thank you so much for all your work on the Haiku Windows series. It’s been wonderful being included and I’ve enjoyed all the fantastic work each week. Nice to have a week off. The next series sounds interesting.

Thank you, KJ, for another great and varied selection of haiku. This has been a fantastic series, and it has been fun to participate. I am sure you need that week off, too, as you’ve done a yeoman’s task dealing with all of these submissions each week. I have enjoyed reading them.

Thanks, too, for selecting one of mine this week as well…It is gratifying to be included with all these excellent haiku.

Kathy, thank you so much for your work on this windows series. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading your selections each week especially all of the different interpretations from such a talented pool of poets.
Best,
Robin

Dear Kathy,
thank you thank thank you thank you for this amazing column. It was a great honor participate every week and read many beautiful poems.
Ad maiora, semper!
Grazie mille!
Warmly,
Eufemia Italy